I’ve lately had occasion…

I’ve lately had occasion to recall a few more fancies than these. Do you remember “Elevators”? After picking up the jacks and catching the ball, we’d throw the jacks up in the air as well as the ball, catching the jacks in the other hand and catching the ball in the throwing hand.

How about “Around the World”? After picking up the jacks, we’d have to circle the bouncing ball with the throwing hand before catching the ball.

As we got older, we played more challenging fancies like “Black Widow.” That was onesies to tensies without missing. If you missed, you had to start from the beginning. We also played a longer version (onesies to tensies and back again) which we called “Blue Widow.” Don’t ask me why this wasn’t “Black Widow;” it